RES Software have released a best practice whitepaper on how to configure advanced connection states for laptops with RES Workspace Manager.
If you are using RES Software Workspace Manager and Windows 7 combined with your laptops this is a “must read” whitepaper.

About this Guide

This best practice is written for IT professionals, who are going to design, build and/or maintain a RES Workspace Manager managed Windows 7 laptop environment which is fully context aware.

Objectives

RES Software wants to create insight in understanding the configuration of different connection states. Configuring the correct connection state is essential for a fully working, context aware, Windows 7 laptop environment. The objective of this guide is to zoom in on the connection state detection feature in different scenarios.

Approach

This best practice guide is created based on our own experience together with the input and knowledge of our partners and customers, related to Windows 7 laptops in combination with the configuration of RES Workspace Manager.

There are multiple paths you can take and scenarios you can build. In this paper we try to describe RES Workspace technology as simple as possible and deliver a fundament to help you as an IT administrator with context-aware challenges to come.

The shown scenarios are tested and build by ourselves, so combining real life scenarios with proven technology will give you everything you need for a successful implementation.

Challenge

Context awareness of a laptop environment all starts with detecting the right connection state. Based on the detected connection state, the Workspace is dynamically built. The type of connection (LAN, WAN, VPN, Wi-Fi, UMTS, 3G, HSDPA, etc.) determines in which context the RES Workspace Manager session will start.

Keep in mind that not every connection type has the same bandwidth available, so decisions need to be made what to allow/disallow in which context. Offline is also considered as a connection state.

When switching between connection types (e.g. Wireless to Wired or vice versa) the RES Workspace Manager needs to detect a connection change, determine the current context and perform a refresh of the Workspace.

The configuration that is discussed in this guide contains a Windows 7 laptop environment with RES Workspace Manager installed.
The laptops move between headquarters and external locations. At the external location a connection to the corporate network is allowed. So basically both scenarios result in the same context for RES Workspace Manager Configuration.

Besides these two “online” states the laptop should also be able to work in “offline” state. “Online scenario”